Reviews

This series started off strong, and has only grown stronger as the episodes progress. The brutality, the pulse-pounding action, the authentic feel of a Viking Raid, it's great.

The Viking society is well represented, although I wonder how realistic it was in comparison to the show. The tribe politics in the first season are great. you really want to see them overcome the Jarl. the Jarl is a really solid character, with a decent back-story, and he was well written and the relationship with his wife and the bad memories (Thats an understatement) of his past made him feel like a very worthy opponent.

The Viking Raids

This is where the show shines, in my opinion. The show immerses you in this sense of exploration and wonder. (when they first let out the Crow to search for land, it's great.) And then when they land they know basically nothing, but most of the audience doesn't either, It's 9th century England they arrive in, and it really feels mysterious and foreign, as from the Viking perspective. So when you see a monastery with really authentic looking interiors and exteriors, many sacred treasures and and relics and authentic looking monks penning over the bible, it immerses you even more. I could go on for a long time about Vikings. But I wont, Go watch it for yourself.

Summary and Rating

Viking is History's best show ever, and that's only the second season, 5 episodes in, and it has already been confirmed for season 3. It's a great show, and really good to watch. It's 44 minutes of being a Viking. I guess I spoiled minorly here but you won't mind, it's real life history (Sweet) and the good thing about history is even if you know about it you will enjoy it anyway.

I rate it 9/10 . Well done

I liked this movie, it's visuals alone make it a treat to watch. All these Physics Phd. wannabes (Look Ma, I watched Apollo 13! I know everything about physics) giving this film 1/10 for being "unrealistic" should just stop going to the movies altogether. Are they just angry because, admittedly, Gravity got too high of a review? Probably. No movie is without it mistakes, and unless you focus on them too heavily in this film they don't detract from it for the most part. The Visuals alone are worth an 8, and the film does an amazing job in letting you feel the emptiness and the vastness of space , sadly, story and character development is basically non existent.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

The plot is basically this; Sandra Bullock goes through a lot of crap and goes home, with your inevitable self sacrificing George Clooney moment in there. Why they picked Clooney and not any other actor is beyond me. He serves no purpose in this film. I was surprised he didn't fly around while drinking a cup of Nespresso. I guess he's just a handsome old mother f*cker. She makes it to the Russian space station, the debris returns to do some major damage ( mainly to everything but plot convenient things), She has a really weird moment ( not because you can't start hallucinating from oxygen starvation, it just didn't fit in the film, at all) where she tries to kill herself by turning off the oxygen, when she gets new hope from a hallucination of George Clooney(What else). She eventually makes it to the Chinese space station, which is re-entering the atmosphere, and she boards it using a fire extinguisher she picked up on the Russian space station, which basically makes the fire extinguisher the best character in this film, or at least the most useful. She lands in a lake, surrounded by lush greens, a pretty amazing sight to behold after fearing for her life in outer space for the duration of the movie.

The totally crap stuff:

There were some incredibly forced "Emotional" scenes, in the form of extremely forced and pointless symbolism, where she takes a fetal position to symbolize rebirth apparently. What the hell film. About as emotional as taking a crap basically. There is also this one scene where she gets in contact with a random guy on the radio, and starts making dog sounds in response to his dogs barking in the background. I don't know why they put things like that in movies, but please don't. They add nothing.

Tl;d.r Summary Looks great, is liberal with its use of physics ( or there would be no movie), has no character development, Sandra Bullock does clumsy stuff and lives to see another day. The story really sucks, the characters are cardboard. I know I said the visuals deserved an 8, but it can't be all style over substance, so I'll detract 1 point. It's a good effort, and a really fun and action packed ride, with some extremely painful and questionable moments in there. 7/10

When this show started I wasn't sure what to think of it. I sure am glad I stuck around to watch it grow and prosper. Since this is a Syfy- produced show they are mostly free to do as they please when it comes to story-writing, and it shows. This show has turned out to be a great one, growing episode after episode with the season finale being a booming crescendo.

As mentioned before, since they have quite a lot of freedom when it comes to writing it allows the writers to touch upon sensitive subjects. Adultery, lesbianism and abortion are only a few of the subjects the writers have been able to seam together effortlesly into 40-minute episodes. At no point has it felt forced or unnatural.

While the story mainly focuses on Nolan and Irisa every character has its proper screen time, and every motivation comes across. It is a fun show to watch, also due to the setting; A post-war radicaly different and quite hostile Earth. Many species and races occupy it as they struggle to survive. While this type of show has been attempted before, Defiance really nailed it. I cannot wait for the second season.

9/10